It is easy for people to get obsessed with a certain view. And rarely does this show as nicely as it does in a world of food and nutrition. When we look at the world of nutrition I like to classify it into three categories. We have foundations, specifics and trends.

Foundations are basic principles. They’ve been around forever and they don’t change. They could only change if our physiology would fundamentally change. In other words if we would become aliens. When we talk about healthy nutrition around 80% of our nutrition should be based on them. Some of the foundations are:

– fresh, varied, local and seasonal food

– unprocessed food

– both animal and plant food

Specifics are when one eats according to a certain goal or has certain dietary restrictions. For instance, if someone is trying to lose body fat that person will eat more fibrous carbohydrates instead of starchy ones. If someone is trying to gain muscle mass it will be the other way around. If an individual is having an allergy or intolerance he or she has to limit or completely exclude a certain food or whole food group because of that no matter how good and nutritious that food is for the rest of the population (for instance gluten allergy or lactose intolerance).

Lastly, we have trends. Trends are tendencies into which current states are changing. All diets are trends. All diets and similar nutritional trends are bad because they are created with a very narrow-minded view. They many times lead to food deficiency because they ignore one or more basic principles. Diets begin when their makers focus on a particular food-specific or food group: eating just animal food, eating just plant food, eating mainly high fat, eating mainly high carbohydrate and so on. They exaggerate the benefits and negate the drawbacks of a particular diet.

One of the characteristics of trends is that they change. So when you base your nutrition on trends/diets sooner or later you will receive a surprise either in failing health, unbalanced well-being or trend/diet will simply be overrun with evidence that points to its faults. Some people base their food and nutrition on trends because they are exciting. It’s something new, amazing and it promises results out of this world. But excitement doesn’t have anything to do with a healthy nutrition and they sooner or later learn that when something sounds too good to be true it usually is. Some do it because they have never learned to think for themselves or are just too naive so whenever anyone tells them something they rarely question it. Others just lack a sense of purpose in their life and they find it in the latest dieting trend.

In conclusion, we can say that on one side we have people who constantly follow different trends. People who never find any balance in a world of food and nutrition no matter how disappointed their last diet has left them. Then we have people who just don’t care about what they eat at all. They think that the world of nutrition is for doctors, nutritionist and coaches. And lastly, we have people who are right in the middle. People who understand what constitutes as a foundation in the world of nutrition. People who base their eating around the foundations and enjoy a healthy lifestyle, optimal well-being and relaxed attitude towards food. The question is in what group do you see yourself?

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